The editors
of Frontiers of
Entrepreneurship Research 2002 wish to express thanks to the Conference participants
for their scholarly efforts that made this book possible. One hundred and
eighty-one papers were presented during the five days of conference sessions.
In addition, thirty-one papers were presented in a successful poster session.
Each year, contributions of participants continue to show concern for quality
of content and breadth of topic, thus assuring that this volume continues
to represent the most recent advances in research on entrepreneurial phenomena.

The Arthur
M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship is very grateful to the Kauffman Foundation
for its willingness to underwrite a portion of the conference costs, including
support for thirty participants in the doctoral consortium. The Kauffman
Foundation, together with the Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship,
also provided a $2,500 prize for the best paper with the most significant
implications for practitioners. In addition the following organizations
provided additional support: the National Federation of Independent Business
(NFIB) Award of $2,500 for the best paper on the general topic of entrepreneurship;
The Taylor and Francis Publishers Award of $2,500 for the best paper on
Venture Capital; The Stevens Institute of Technology Wesley J. Howe Award
of $2,500 for Excellence in Research on the topic of Corporate Entrepreneurship;
and The Raymond Family Business Award of $2,500 for the best paper on a
family business topic. All of the winning papers are published in their
entirety in this edition of Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research and are listed at the beginning
of the Detailed Table of Contents.

A sincere thank
you to the following reviewers of the 2002 conference for their support
and dedication to the field of entrepreneurship research: Candida G. Brush,
Boston University; Per Davidsson, Jönkönping University; James Fiet, University
of Louisville; Patricia G. Greene, University of Missouri, Kansas City;
Richard T. Harrison, University of Edinburgh; Miri Lerner, Tel Aviv University;
G. Dale Meyer, University of Colorado at Boulder; Jeffrey Sohl, University of New Hampshire;
and Andrew Zacharakis,
Babson College.

Special thanks
to our cosponsor: Robert H. and Beverly A. Deming Center for Entrepreneurship,
Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado at Boulder, and to the
enthusiastic support of Professor G. Dale Meyer. We are deeply grateful
to Kathy Simon, director of the Deming Center, for her dedication and guidance
to the successful execution of the conference. We would also like to thank
Deming Center staff: Patty Graff, assistant director; Sara Tanner, conference
coordinator; Vesper Tanaka, executive assistant; Denis Gregoire, PhD student;
and Becca Morphew, student conference assistant. Additionally, our appreciation
and sincere thanks go to the municipality of Boulder and its city council.

We would like
to thank the members of the Doctoral Consortium including Professor of Management
Dean Shepherd of the University of Colorado; Professor Shaker Zahra, Strategy
and Entrepreneurship at Georgia State; and Professor Harry Sapienza, Strategic
Management and Organization at the University of Minnesota.

The design
and organization of the conference was carried out at Babson under the supervision
of Conference Coordinator Georgia Papavasiliou. Typesetting was done by
Deborah Whitford of Publishing Support Associates in Virginia. In addition,
Meghan Cook, Keri Dookran, and Katie Ingalls, administrative assistants;
Adrian Alleyne, Kuljit S. Dharni, John Hargrave, Scott Suckow, of Babson
College; Chris Porter and Bradley Jacobs of Interliant. Everyone at Babson
associated with the 2002 Conference, including the Document Center, Accounting
Department, and Central Services, was instrumental in bringing this undertaking
to another successful conclusion.